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PURIFY  YOURSELVES

4/29/2020

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April 29, 2020                                                 PURIFY  YOURSLVES
1 Corinthian 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
1 Peter 1:14-16 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.”
One of the most common and one of the most damaging concepts we hear from well-meaning believers is that ‘It’s all up to God,’ or ‘God has to change me,’ or ‘I’m waiting on the Spirit to move,’ ‘Or that’s just the way God made me-that’s just the way I am.’ But the most ‘unscriptural’ viewpoint I have heard expressed from other believers is that ‘It does not matter what we do-it’s all about the grace of God-God loves us as are.’  It is true that God is sovereign and that it is only by the power of the Spirit that we can live the Christian life, and that He loves us no matter what we do-but there’s more. All of these statements, or viewpoints, sound reasonable and are easy to buy into as being true. The big problem is that they are in conflict with the clear teaching of the scriptures. These various viewpoints that I believe are in conflict with the scriptures are likely based on a misunderstanding of grace; misunderstanding grace can give us an excuse and a justification for our actions. The truth is that God places on us much responsibility in the implementation, or putting into action the instructions of His word. Again, it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can walk according to the Spirit. We are to be co-labors in working with God as He works in us; this call to be co-labors is an important truth we must not miss or neglect if we are to be being transformed into His image. We are not like robots or subjects waiting to be told what to do; we are in partnership with God as He works out His purposes in and through us. From the verses above, we see that we must be about purifying or cleansing ourselves ‘from all defilement of flesh and spirit’ and ‘perfecting holiness.’ These instructions are not difficult to understand. Simply put, if and when we find that some things we do, or some thoughts we have are not pleasing to the Lord and or in conflict with God’s word, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can lay it aside-I stop doing it-we make a spiritual adjustment. You may be thinking that that is too simple-but I assure you, that’s the way it works. This is not just a mechanical process; the foundation for all of this is that of having a heart to be like Him and to be pleasing Him in thought and action, in all we do. Note that in 1 Peter 1:14-15 we are told ‘not to be conformed to the former lust;’ in other words, we have now been made new and we are not who we use to be and our life now is to be different from what it was before. Before we came to know Christ as Savior, suppose we were in the habit of lying for example, but now we speak truth, etc. The good news is that purifying ourselves and to be perfecting holiness is not difficult, but brings about an inner joy and peace, not only to us, but to those around us-it leads to life. Let us start this very day to be about purifying ourselves and perfecting holiness-to do so pleases our Father and blesses us.
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,”
Blessings, Buddy
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AS  HE  IS

4/26/2020

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April 26, 2020                                                  AS  HE  IS
1 John 4:16-17 “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
1 Peter 1:13-16 “Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”
It seems that as a whole, we have not gotten the full story and we have underestimated just how great and far reaching our salvation really is. When we honestly compare the current view and understanding of what it means to be a Christian with how the New Testament portrays the life of a believer, we have to admit that we, not all but many, have somehow lost something along the way. If some correction is needed in how we view our ‘Christianity’ and if we are to adjust our understanding of what it means that Christ is in us and we are in Him, and what it means that we have been made new creations, there is a hurdle we must overcome. Keeping it brief, we must lay aside our current pre-conceived ideas of how we interpret the scriptures and we must adopt the attitude of reading and studying the scriptures with the mind of a learner with an open mind. Today’s topic is one of those cases where it’s likely most of us find ourselves asking what it means that ‘As He is, so also are we in this world.’ That is an awesome statement that has huge implications for you and I. Can we grasp the fact that we have actually been transferred to His kingdom, that we have been set free from the power of sin, that we can walk by the Spirit and not fulfill the flesh-that we can be like Him? Likely, we all agree in our mind that these things are true, but at the same time it is possible that we are not daily walking in these truths. I’m not talking about ‘sinless perfection’ but about walking and living as new creations. (As we walk in the Spirit, He will convict us if we sin, and will forgive us. 1 John 1:9) Someone said that we have given the Devil too much credit-and that is probably true. Of course, we cannot be like Him in our own strength or with our best effort; only by the power of the Spirit of God who indwells us can we be like Him in this world. The call to be like Him is not reserved for the super-spiritual or ministers, but is for every believer. There is a process of maturing and growing in the faith for believers, but even ‘babes in Christ’ can with the help of the Holy Spirit, reflect the nature of Christ. All of the ‘one-another’ scriptures give a clear picture of what being ‘as He is in this world’ looks like. May we be able to say as John said in the verse above that “we have come to know and have believed”; may we know the love God has for us, that when we abide in God’s love, He abides in us, and that “as He is, so also are we in this world.” Let us turn our heart and our focus to who God says we are and to the awesome implications of being made new creations.
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, My beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Ephesians 8:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved Children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
Blessings, Buddy
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YOU ARE MY FRIENDS

4/23/2020

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April 23, 2020                                        YOU  ARE  MY  FRIENDS 
Matthew 15:14-16 “You are My friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard  from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”
Wow! There is a lot packed in to these three verses. To start with, Jesus is saying that our friendship with Him is conditional, and that may sound contradictory to Jesus loving us as we are, etc.  We must understand that we do not become His friend by doing certain things; we do the things He commands because we are His friends; our friendship with Jesus is the motivator of our actions. In these verses, Jesus is speaking of an intimate relationship He desires to have with His followers; He is revealing the depths of His heart. In a very real sense, Jesus is ‘laying it all out there’ for us to see the inner-workings of His relationship with the Father and how it impacts us; it is like Jesus showing us the master plan of what He is doing. It is awesome, but everything the Father told Jesus, Jesus told it to His followers! He held nothing back. Jesus and God were not having private conversations while Jesus was on earth; whatever the Father revealed or said to Jesus, Jesus passed it on to His followers, His friends. Some may disagree with this, but we have a relationship with Jesus and we enjoy a friendship with Him because He chose us-we did not choose Him. Not only did He choose us, He appointed us for a certain purpose; Jesus appointed us and commissioned us to go and bear fruit. Note that we are to ‘go.’ We have been ‘sent.’ Go and sent or action words. If we spend our time listening to sermons, studying the word, attending church services, but do not ‘go,’ we are in great error and not fulfilling our commission. We may not be called to the foreign mission field, but we are called to be about His work-perhaps at home, next door or at our place of employment, or wherever. We are not just to go, but to go and bear fruit; we are not called just to be busy. It is abundantly clear that it was the intensions of Jesus for His followers to carry on the work that He began here on earth. Jesus did not leave His followers empty-handed or un-equipped when He ascended back into heaven, but promised that they would receive the Holy Spirit who would enable them to carry on His work. In this light, a key verse that believers need to embrace is Ephesians 2:10 which says “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Yes, you and I are called to carry on the work that Jesus began; He did not just tell us what to do or how to live-He demonstrated it for us. We all know the disappointment and the frustration of seeing some of the work we do being short-lived, not lasting. The good news for us is that when we do the works that God has prepared for us, the fruit of that work will last. Let us grasp the fact that we are friends of Jesus, that Jesus has revealed to us the heart of our Father, and that He has called us to go and bear fruit. Finally, when our prayers are in line with the purposes of God, they will be answered.
John 9:4 “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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TAKING  EVERY  THOUGHT  CAPTIVE

4/20/2020

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April 20, 2020                                     TAKING  EVERY  THOUGHT  CAPTIVE
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”
Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every false thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
It is interesting how so often we can fail to act on what we know to be important, even to our own hurt. For example, we may know that we should have a healthier diet, but we continue our routine diet, or we may know that we need to change the oil in our car, but we neglect to do it. Having a healthy diet and changing the oil when needed, or whatever it may be, is important, but there is something that is far more important and fundamental that we must take action on if we are to live life as God designed it to be lived. Everyone knows the importance of, and the power of the mind-our thought life. One misunderstanding we must be alert to, one common ‘un-truth’ we hear is that one is born with either a positive or negative attitude, and that is the attitude they go through life with. (We are born with certain temperaments, but that is another subject.)That belief or viewpoint is the very thing, the lie, that will prevent us from experiencing change in how we think. It is a major, red letter day when we realize that we have power over our thought life; the mind must not be viewed as being independent of our spirit. If left to itself, if we do not direct or choose our thoughts, we will as they say, run amok. We tend to see ourselves as a body with a mind, soul and spirit, but the truth is that we are a spirit with a body, soul and mind. In the verses above, we can readily see that we have a choice as to what we think about-how we set our mind. Each of us are daily bombarded with information and circumstances that would get our thought life off track if we fail to take control over our thoughts in the midst of the bombardment. Philippians 4:8 is a good filter, or a ‘standard mode of operation’ of what we choose to think about. Romans 12:2 tells us that we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. 2 Corinthians 10:5 shows us the necessity of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ-in other words, think the thoughts that are pleasing to Him. It seems that many believers have difficulty in believing and receiving what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:16 when he states that we “have the mind of Christ.” It is amazing, but because the Holy Spirit lives in us and God has made us new creations, we can think like Christ! (For believers in general to think like Christ would no doubt have a tremendous impact on the world in which we live.)  Our actions and responses flow out of our thought life. Proverbs 23:7 reveals a crucial truth: “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  There is a battle we must fight; we will have wrong thoughts trying to take hold in our minds, but we must not allow these unhealthy thoughts to land. As the verse above instructs us, we must take our thoughts captive. In other words, we must choose what we will and what we will not think about. I have shared this illustration before, but it is worth repeating. A thought is like an airplane circling above asking permission to land in our minds; we can tell it to land, or not to land! The temptation to think on a wrong thought is not a sin, it is yielding to the temptation to dwell on the thought that is a sin. May each of us take full control over what we think about and meditate on; let us filter our thoughts through Philippians 4:8. Let us choose this day to think like Christ-we can do just that!
1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming.”
Blessings,
Buddy

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IN  TIME  OF  NEED

4/17/2020

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April 17, 2020                                            IN  TIME  OF  NEED
Hebrews 4:16: “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.”
Because we live in a fallen word-a world that does not know Christ-we will face times of need. Just yesterday an urgent email was forwarded to me requesting prayer for missionaries in or near Iraq. The city in which they are working was taken two nights ago by ISIS and children were being be-headed systematically. ISIS was just ten minutes from where the missionaries were staying. I have not heard any other news about the fate of the missionaries.  Also, just a couple days ago there were five nurses killed in a horrible car accident. I could go on to talk about a friend who recently died from cancer; and another friend who has just been diagnosed with cancer. All of us have similar stories of hurt and pain that we could share. However, Christians are unique in that we have a place to go to find help in time of need-the throne of grace. Jesus left heaven to come to earth to redeem those who would receive Him. Jesus was man and He experienced the trials of life just as we do, but without sin. In Hebrews 5:15 we read: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” The book of Hebrews goes into great detail declaring  that Jesus is the Son of God and that God is very pleased with His Son and it reveals to us all that Jesus accomplished on our behalf. (I dare say that we do not yet clearly understand just what all Jesus did accomplish for us.) God sending His only Son, and the Son being obedient to even to death, was all done because of the great love that God-and the Son-has for His people. In verse 14-15 we read: “Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all of their lives.” As believers, we are blessed above all people to have Jesus as our high priest; a priest who sympathizes and understands first- hand what it means to live in flesh and bone. Not only does He sympathize and understand, but He comes to our aid-He invites us to His throne-to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. Again, the book of Hebrews goes to great length to convey just how much is available to us as the children of God but the truth presented needs to be revealed in our spirit. Regardless of the trials and hurts we face, we are invited to come to the throne of grace and receive help that comes from Jesus, our faithful high Priest. We are not mere humans trying to survive in life; we are children of God who have the opportunity of being overcomers in life and we are kept by the power of God. May we have a heart to discover all that Jesus, our high Priest, has done on our behalf.
Hebrews 3:1: “THEREFORE, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.”
Hebrews 7:25: “Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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I  SHALL  NOT  BE  MOVED

4/14/2020

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April 14, 2020                                            I  SHALL  NOT  BE  MOVED
Psalm 16:8 “I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
Psalm 1:2-3 “When you meditate on-and delight in-the Word, you are like a tree planted by streams of water.”
Psalm 62:5-6 “My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken.”
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain.”
It appears that as a culture we are placing less value on commitment and resolve-that’s just my observation. It is a good trait to be flexible, to be willing to change, to be adjustable, and to be willing to change course when we need to do so. However, it is also a good trait to have the attitude and resolve of “I shall not be moved” regarding certain aspects of our lives. In particular, when it comes to us living as unto the Lord, we should have absolute resolve and commitment to obey what the Lord has said to us personally and what He has said in His word, no matter what others may think and no matter that what the cost may be. When I think of commitment, I think about a true story from history that is a great illustration of commitment. I’ll be brief in recounting this event. There was a leader in a certain nation that wanted to conquer another island nation that was known for its vast amount gold. Others had tried to defeat this country in order to get the goal, but all had failed. This individual raised an army and secured the ships and set sail to conquer and take the gold. To everyone’s surprise and shock, once they landed, he ordered that the ships be burned, saying that “If we go home, we are going home in THEIR ships! That’s commitment. When our confidence and trust is in God, when our heart is fully turned to Him, we have every reason ‘not to be shaken’ nor fearful. His presence and His watching over us makes all the difference. We need to know in our innermost being that our hope and trust is in God alone; when it is, we can face any challenge in life, and not be moved from our confidence in Him. Our heavenly Father is ruling, He has adopted us into His family, He loves us, and He has given us His Holy Spirit to guide us and empower us. Like David did, let us profess that we will not be moved!
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.   
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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THE  GREAT   TRANSFER

4/11/2020

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April 11, 2020                                             THE  GREAT  TRANSFER
John 8:12 “Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”
Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
These verses present a very clear an awesome truth; Jesus transferred a purpose He served in His earthly ministry to His followers-and that includes you and I. Jesus makes the bold proclamation that He was the light of the world. Before Jesus came into the world, the world was in darkness and without hope. Through His teaching and by His example, His light pierced the darkness and for the first time, those who trusted Him as Savior, who believed in Him, were able to walk in the light of truth. Those that do not know God personally continue to walk in darkness. That’s where we come in. In John 8:12, Jesus tells us that if we follow Him (hear and obey) we will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. It may sound strange, but by walking in the light, we will be able to see, or recognize the darkness. The good news, and the fact that cannot be denied is that light overcomes darkness-not the other way around. When Jesus ascended back into heaven, He appointed us as light bearers; His followers were given the ministry of being light in a dark world. We must not be surprised when we see the darkness; but we must push back against the darkness and let the light shine into the darkness, exposing it for what it is. We are not to let our light shine in a judgmental or condemning way, but doing it in a spirit of love and compassion-that is crucial. There is one problem in Christian circles that can hinder the process of letting our light shine. For some reason, many focus more on their ‘short comings’ and failures, and in fact, think that they have a better chance of gaining an audience by focusing on how they miss the mark. (This is not to say that we should not confess our faults and be honest about our failures-that’s another subject.) Perhaps we are afraid of being called a “holy Joe” or afraid that others may think we see ourselves as better than others. You can’t escape the importance of good works; there is a connection between good works and letting our light shine. We are called and we are designed to be engaged in good works because that is part of our new nature that God has put within us. We cannot brag on our good works because it is only by the grace of God that He enables us to do the works that please Him. We must learn of our true identity in Him-who we are in Him-and be about letting the light that He has put in us shine before men that they may glorify our Father who is in heaven. Let us not brag about our good works, but neither let us be ashamed of our good works; let us be focused on the light-not on the darkness, as light overcomes the darkness. May our thoughts, our mindset, and our actions flow out of the light that comes to us from our Father who is in heaven. When you bump into the darkness, let your light shine!
Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
Blessings, Buddy
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EVERYTHING  PERTAINING  TO  LIFE

4/8/2020

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April 8, 2020                                    EVERYTHING  PERTAINING  TO  LIFE
2 Peter 1:3-4, 10-11 “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His magnificence promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.         Therefore brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
Peter Parris once made the statement that “Our salvation is greater than we think.” Some think of our salvation as our ticket to heaven-and that it is-but it’s so much more; we can spend our lifetime learning more about this ‘so great salvation.’ Hebrews 2:3.  We may at times find life overwhelming and we may be uncertain of the choices we must make, but in those times, we must remember that God has indeed “granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” which becomes a reality to us through the “true knowledge of Him.” This ‘true knowledge’ is knowing God according to who He says He is in the scriptures instead of defining Him according to our own understanding and preferences. It is a huge mistake to think that we can gain a true knowledge of God apart from reading and studying His written word. The written word of God is not just good advice-His word is super-natural and it goes beyond mere intellect. We cannot separate the Holy Spirit from the word of God because it takes the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of God’s word and how it applies to our day-to-day life circumstances. In the scriptures, we find ‘magnificence’ promises. One of the promises is that we can ‘partake’ of the divine nature of God and thereby escape the corruption that is in the world-what a promise! 1 John 4:17 tells us that “as He is, so also are we in this world.”  His word is life; His word guides us; corrects us: encourages us; trains us for life; reveals truth to us; and gives us confidence and hope. Because His word   is super-natural, it takes us out of living according to our very limited human understanding and reasoning. There is a warning in the above scriptures that we need to hear; in order for us to experience the power of God’s word, we ‘must practice these things.’ Reading God’s word and not obeying-not practicing-ensures that we will not experience the promises that are for those who hear and obey. Let us take to heart and be diligent to make certain of His calling and choosing us by practicing what God has said in His word; by doing so, we will not stumble. God has done everything necessary in order for us to experience the abundant life that is found only in Him.
James 1:25 “But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it-not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it-they will be blessed in what they do.”
Blessings,

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A  RICH  HERITAGE

4/5/2020

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April 6, 2020                                           A  RICH  HERITAGE
Luke 10:33-34 “But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon Him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and bought him to an inn, and took care of him. 
Matthew 10:8 “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.”
In the book “Water From A Deep Well,” the author does a masterful job of giving insight on how the early church functioned and the impact it had on the culture. One of the main reasons of writing this book was to show the deep and wonderful heritage we have as believers; indeed we do have deep roots as believers. There is much we can learn as we discover our spiritual roots; as we take a close look at the lives of the early believers, it is indeed like drinking water from a deep well. As I was thinking about what our response as believers should be concerning the coronavirus, I was reminded about one of the facts I learned in reading this book was how the early believers dealt with those who were sick. In the Roman culture, it was customary to cast anyone out of the house if they became ill; the sick were left to wander and to fend for themselves. This is where the early church made a difference-because they had experienced the grace, the love, and the compassion of God, they demonstrated the same compassion by taking in those who had been cast out, making every effort to nurse them back to health; this also included helping those who became sick with plagues. It is amazing, but because these early believers were not afraid to come along side those who had the plague to help, many of the believers developed an immunity to the plague! Wow! We could call certainly this current coronavirus a plague. What I am about to say may sound contradictory, but I don’t think it is. I think it is wise for us to follow the protocol in responding to this virus; we should maintain ‘social distancing’ and etc. But at the same time, we must be willing and anxious to help when and where we can; perhaps deliver meals or help in some way as we have opportunity. We need to pray for those who work in healthcare who are at high risk for getting the virus. As believers, we should be wise, but not to live in fear. Our confidence must be in the Lord and the compassion that God has put in our hearts should be expressed to those in need. We have been following the protocol personally, but the other day someone who was just home from the hospital called and asked us to take her to the doctor’s office; my first thought was that we should not be around those who had been exposed in such a way to the virus, but then the Holy Spirit reminded me that we do not need to fear, but to be willing to help when asked. Again, let us be wise, but also let us put our faith into action and be expressions of the love, grace, and compassion of God.  
Matthew 25:36 “I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
3 John 1:2 “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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CALLED  TO  CONQUER

4/3/2020

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April 3, 2020                                              CALLED  TO  CONQUER
Daniel 11:32b “…but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”
Joshua 14:11-12a “I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day,”
2 Corinthians 10:4 “for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”     
From my perspective, as a culture, it seems we have diminished the idea of conquering and have retreated to a position of compromise and complacency, and acceptance of things as they are. The idea of fighting or going to war is frowned upon by many who say we must live in peace and let people do as they please, and live without moral absolutes. Many believe that God is a God of love, and He is that; but He is also a God who wars against His enemies and is all about His people conquering and overcoming just as He does. In the Old Testament, the people of God were constantly engaged in physical wars and struggles that was a foreshadow or picture of the spiritual battles we are engaged in under the New Covenant. Today, if we are engaged, we are constantly having to battle with philosophies and beliefs that are contrary to the truth of the scriptures; we are bombarded continually with lies-and sometime the lies we hear sound reasonable and good. Many things that are now commonly accepted in our culture are in extreme contradiction to the clear teachings of God’s word. As Chester Puller (a famous US Marine) once said when surrounded by the enemy “We can now fight in any direction.” So it is with us. However, we do not fight alone or in our own strength-but we do fight! As believers, we must stand for truth at all cost; we must expose the lies that would defeat us and our loved ones; a lot is at stake. The first battle we must engage in is a personal battle; we must examine our own beliefs and our actions to make sure we are spiritually healthy and ready for battle. Next, we must realize that we have been called to the front lines to fight for the truth. We must proclaim as well as demonstrate that God is able to deliver His people from all that binds them and all that defeats them, whether it be depression, anxiety, fear, harmful addictions, bad attitudes, disappointments, unbelief, and a mindset of giving up on life. God has called us AND equipped us to be ones who bring the good news to those who have been taken prisoners by the lies of the culture. The battles we face are primarily spiritual battles, but I believe that there is a physical battle that comes in to play as well; I think there is a connection between the spiritual and the physical-mainly, the spiritual affects the physical. (Sorry I am rambling a little-there is a lot I want to say.) One thing that greatly disturbs me is the ‘de-masculinity’ of men. There is a need for men to step in to their role as men who love God, who protect and provide for those around them, who are strong but yet gentle and kind, and who serve. God designed the woman and the man with unique strengths and abilities; the culture, and the children, suffer when we ignore the basic design of the woman and the man. (Sorry, more rambling.) I’m just trying to say, know that we are in a battle, know that God has equipped us, and know that we are called to action. To be sedentary is not God’s idea for us. Go ahead and do a few exploits; scale that mountain; take the enemy out; expose the darkness and the lies! If you know God personally, then you are called to be an overcomer in life-there is no escaping that fact. Remember, we win the fight only as we fight in His strength.
Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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    Buddy Fitzgerald

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